After 18 long months, Gloria Boria’s grave finally has a headstone.
The woman died in 2019 at the age of 61, and her daughter, Jasmin Rosa-Rivera, was tasked with ordering a monument to mark Boria’s final resting place.
She came across Haren Monuments in Newark and paid $1,895 for a stone using her debit card, documents show. She also gave the company $800 in cash for a cemetery fee so the stone could be mounted when it was ready, she said.
But months later, Rosa-Rivera hadn’t received word about the stone and the owner wasn’t returning her calls or emails, she said.
She didn’t know it at the time, but the company — when it had a different owner — had a problems in the past, public records show.
It went out of business in 2014 after taking money for headstones that it never delivered to customers, according to the Division of Consumer Affairs. The agency got involved, recovering some stones from the Haren property and delivering them to the owners.
The state also took Haren to court, and in 2015, it was ordered to pay $9,116 for Consumer Fraud Act violations, public documents show. The default judgment remains unpaid, Consumer Affairs said.
But when Rosa-Rivera went to Haren, a new owner had purchased the company name.
Soon after she paid for the stone, there was a dispute between the owner and another family member who is also in the monument business, Rosa-Rivera said. The owner left and the other family member took over the company, but didn’t take responsibility for Rosa-Rivera’s order, based on interviews conducted by NJ Advance Media at the time.
She was out her money and her mother’s grave remained bare.
“We cannot even visit her grave and feel her presence as it is just empty,” Rosa-Rivera said at the time.
After Bamboozled spotlighted the case, the company refunded the $800 and Rosa-Rivera was able to get back the $1,895 in a successful credit card dispute.
And Life Monuments, a headstone company with locations in Bloomfield and Woodbridge, offered to make a stone for the grave — for free.
Owner Mark Van Buskirk said he felt it was the right thing to do after reading the story.
“When a family buys something and pays for it and doesn’t get it, that’s not right,” he said. “I just want families to know that not all monument dealers are bad.”
The stone was put in place in April, and the family visited on Mother’s Day, Rosa-Rivera said.
Gloria Boria’s family visiting her grave site on Mother’s Day. Pictured from left to right is Xiomar Rosa, David Rosa, Jasmin Rosa-Rivera, Michelle Plaza. Luis Boris stands in the back. (Courtesy Jasmin Rosa-Rivera)
“We appreciate Life Monuments for that,” she said. “For a year-and-a-half, going to that empty spot only gave me anxiety about why she still had no stone. I couldn’t connect with her as I know I should. Finally having a place to visit my mom helped me feel at peace.”
“We immediately planted some lilies to give the area color and life — just as we remember her,” Rosa-Rivera said.
Thanks to Life Monuments for helping this family.
Gloria Boria’s youngest grandson, Joseph Plaza Jr., visits his grandmother’s grave on Mother’s Day. (Courtesy Jasmin Rosa-Rivera)
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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
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